Sun Journal Letter to the Editor by CCTA Vice Chairman, Nancy Murdoch

Health care


February 19, 2011

If the Obama health care plan is so great, why have so many companies and entities been granted waivers? Over 500 waivers were granted last December bringing the total to over 700. Some of these exemptions have gone to groups previously supporting and demanding government run health care, such as SEIU. In fact, 40 percent of the waivers have gone to unions. No one has been able to ascertain what guidelines are used for granting waivers, but it appears that some sort of cronyism is in play.

Once again the federal government plays the commerce card in an attempt to meet the Constitutional mandate. To call this a stretch is an understatement. Requiring everyone, regardless of age or circumstances, to buy insurance is the very core of the bill, as funding would be too costly otherwise. Even the administration recognizes this fact. If this bill is left to stand then the government can demand that we purchase anything, and we will have tipped the scale from freedom into a European style socialist democracy, the very system that our forefathers escaped in the search for liberty.

It appears that many Americans have given up on freedom and traded it for the illusion of security. With government health care on the horizon, not only the poor and elderly will depend on government, but all of us will be under the thumb of control. Americans still say they love freedom, but many are unwilling to do the work required to keep it. By allowing the government to remove the risks, rewards and consequences of decision making, we are destroying our freedom.

There is a group of people in America that believes people are incapable of making good decisions for themselves, and that they are smarter and more educated than the rest of us, and conversely should make the decisions that will benefit us the most. Another group is willing to go along with the first group either through apathy or a feeling of helplessness. Freedom lovers (the third group) are willing to do the hard work and have the patience, two attributes in short supply these days, in order to retain control over their own lives; to succeed or fail.

For those who would question what freedoms we have lost, either they are living in a cave and not reading this newspaper, or are completely clueless to the number of regulations and laws that are making it difficult to be a law abiding citizen. Falsely believing they are safer and more secure, they tolerate the intrusion into every aspect of their lives. When will we stop using human weaknesses and the failures of society as an excuse to replace freedom with more government control?

Nancy Murdoch, CCTA Vice Chairman
Havelock, NC

http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/government-95029-care-waivers.html